AUSSIES AND AMERICANS: ONE VIEW

Typical Yanks. They've pinched our prejudices
by Tom Hyland

TYPICAL Yank. The thought might have crossed the mind of the guard at the Shrine of Remembrance as he lectured the elderly American tourist with his camera, plaid jacket and slacks.
The old Yank was my father's cousin, one of dozens Dad had in the US, the children of Irish uncles who migrated early last century and settled in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
His name was John J. Hyland, and when he arrived in Melbourne on a brief holiday, Dad asked me to show him around. So we went to the shrine, where he had a conversation with the guard, a man with a slouch hat and, it seemed, a kitbag full of prejudices, including a defensive resentment of Americans.